THE DEVIL COLONY by James Rollins

The Devil Colony is another entry in James Rollins’s adrenaline-charged Sigma Force series that combines derring-do and historic conspiracy theory platforms. This book comes after the first short story about a one-time villainess of the books came out earlier this year and ties into that tale.

For the first time, Rollins opens his Pandora’s Box of trouble and twisted history here in the United States, and it’s pretty amazing to see what he can do with the legacy of the Founding Fathers and the Fourteenth Colony. As a history major, I love the details he winds into the tale, but I also know that the author is having a good time bending and twisting things to suit his story ever so slightly.

Interestingly enough, Sigma Force’s Director, Painter Crowe (many of the members tend to have unusual names, but that makes them distinctive) takes center stage in this adventure. Grayson Pierce backs up the investigative efforts while struggling with his own personal family problems. Crowe embraces his Native American roots and long-time readers get to see a different side of him than has been presented so far.

Kowalski, another team favorite, ends up working directly with Crowe, and it’s fun to watch how they get along. But the real team that everyone has been waiting on is Gray and Seichan, the female assassin and terrorist that has been on the other side of the table from Sigma Force during earlier books.

Rollins treats all of these characters like family, and readers get the chance to see them grow and go through harsh changes. Like the addition of Monk’s baby in this novel. The books are a lot like sitting down and listening to the stories of friends and family, getting to catch up on all the news as the pages turn.

The villain this time out is pretty fascinating as well, and he turns out to be more of a James Bond villain than ever before due to his strange medical condition – as well as the relationship he has with his second-in-command. The ending of this novel presents that villain – as well as the ones that have come before – in a new light. The twist/revelation at the end is going to have fans anxiously awaiting the next book in the series.

The Devil Colony starts out with a bang and rushes through to a climax with clues, twists, historical facts, and bone-crunching action. Rollins continues to mimic the back-and-forth chapter progression of the old pulp writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs, swinging wildly between three or four different plot lines, constantly ending the scenes on cliffhangers that force the reader on at an all-or-nothing pace.

Don’t start this one unless you have the time to sit down and read it from cover to cover.